An Invective against Women

Love's Embassy, in an Iambic Elegy

Page

Sonnet" The poets feign that when the world began❞

288

Sonnet-Love's Seven deadly Sins

Ode of Cynthia

The Anatomy of Love

Sonnet To the Countesses of Cumberland and Warwick

Of Love Gift

A Poem If Wrong by force had Justice put to flight" 297

A Poem, in the nature of an Epitaph of a Friend

Love's Contentment

A Repentant Poem

An Epitaph upon the Heart of Henry the Third of France

translated

ADDITIONS, BY CHARLES BEST, ESQ.

An Epitaph on Henry the Fourth of France

An Epitaph on Queen Elizabeth

Union's Jewell

A Panegyrick to my Sovereign Lord the King

To my Lord the Prince

308

312

To the excellent Lady Elizabeth, her Grace

De Lapsu Hominis in Adam

An Introduction to the Translation of the Psalms. By

Francis Davison

315

ibid.

317

An Introduction to so many of the Psalms as are of Mr.

Francis Davison's composure

323

324

Psalm VI

225

Psalm XXIII.-To St. Bernard's "Cur mundus militat"

363

377

Psalm CXLII.

The Dialogue between the Squire, Proteus, Amphitrite,

and Thamesis. (In the Gray's Inn Masque, 1594)

Fragments of Poems and Anagrams

A Censure upon Machiavel's Florentine History

Answer to Mrs. Mary Cornwallis, the pretended Countess

of Bath's Libel, against the Countess of Cumber-

land being a Defence of the Marriage of Wil-

liam Bourchier, third Earl of Bath, with Elizabeth

Russell, daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford

Note. Containing Two other Copies of the Poem entitled

The Lie, printed in p. 24

387

409

MORE SONNETS, ODES, &c.

SONNET I.

HE DEMANDS PARDON FOR LOOKING, LOVING, AND

WRITING.

LET not, sweet saint! let not these lines offend you ;
Nor
yet the message that these lines impart :
The message my unfeigned love doth send you,
Love, which yourself hath planted in my heart.
For being charm'd by the bewitching art

Of those inveigling graces which attend you,
Love's holy fire makes me breathe out in part
The never-dying flames my breast doth lend you.
Then if my lines offend, let Love be blamed;
And if my love displease, accuse mine eyes:
If mine eyes sin, their sin's cause only lies
On your bright eyes, which have my heart inflamed.
Since eyes, love, lines, err then by your direction,
Excuse mine eyes, my lines, and my affection.

SONNET II.

LOVE IN JUSTICE PUNISHABLE ONLY WITH LIKE

BUT if

LOVE.

my lines may not be held excused, Nor yet my love find favour in your eyes;

But that your eyes as judges shall be used,

Even of the fault which from themselves doth rise,

Yet this my humble suit do not despise;

Let me be judged as I stand accused:
If but my fault my doom do equalize,
Whate'er it be, it shall not be refused.
And since my love already is expressed,
And that I cannot stand upon denial,
I freely put myself upon my trial;
Let justice judge me as I have confessed:
For if my doom in Justice' scales be weigh'd
With equal love, my love must be repaid.

SONNET III.

HE CALLS HIS EARS, EYES, AND HEART AS WITNESSES OF HER SWEET VOICE, BEAUTY, AND

INWARD VIRTUOUS PERFECTIONS.

FAIR is thy face, and great thy wit's perfection;
So fair, alas, so hard to be exprest,
That if my tired pen should never rest,

It should not blaze thy worth, but my affection:

Yet let me say, the Muses make election

Of your pure mind, there to erect their nest;
And that your face is such, a flint-hard breast,
By force thereof, without force feels subjection.
Witness mine ear, ravish'd when you it hears;

Witness mine eyes, ravish'd when you they see:
Beauty and virtue, witness eyes and ears,
In you, sweet Saint, have equal sovereignty.
But if nor eyes nor ears can prove it true,
Witness my heart, there's none that equals you;
How they make my poor heart at once to dwell,
In fire and frost, in heaven and in hell!

SONNET IV.

PRAISE OF HER EYES, EXCELLING ALL COMPARISON.

I BEND my wit, but wit cannot devise

Words fit to blaze the worth your eyes contains,

Whose nameless worth their worthless name disdains, For they in worth exceed the name of Eyes they be not, but worlds, in which there lies

eyes.

More bliss than this wide world besides contains.
Worlds they be not, but stars, whose influence reigns.
Over my life and life's felicities.

Stars they be not, but suns, whose presence drives
Darkness from night, and doth bright day impart :
Suns they be not, which outward heat derives,
But these do inwardly inflame my heart.
Since then in earth, nor heaven, they equall'd are,
I must confess they be beyond compare.